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In Quebec the one thing I'm always really looking forward to is, of course, French cuisine. For our daughter's graduation in Montreal we put up in a fairly nice hotel near campus, and went down for breakfast with pleasant expectations.

Heading straight for the croissants I noticed their lack of crispness, cold and tired they were sitting in the display. Well, there was the toaster, and innocently pretending not to understand the warning: "Pas des croissants" ("Nix comprengg!") I revived my lackluster pastry (no smoke alarm).

Back at our table I garnished my croissant with some butter and jam and took my first bite. At once red lights started flashing as my taste buds yelled: "Beware of cardboard!!!" In utter disbelief I took a second bite, and there it was - a total blandness and the faint but unmistakable taste of shortening!

In two days we will be home in Maine, and next time we visit Portland we will go to our favorite breakfast place: "Mornings in Paris", where they have the most wonderful, buttery, crisp croissants...

I really wanted to try once a 100% rye recipe- a dense, moist, delicious bread that I love eating in my trips to europe (not the sponge like clorored stuff they sell in the stores). I decided to give Hamelman Vollkornbrot a try.

I've tweaked the recipe just a bit as I changed the rye chops to cracked rye and I had only 7 oz of it (I've add the rest as rye flour).

The whole rye experience is quite ew to me as have not made more than a 40% rye until now. It was actually great fun' as you don't expect gluten development and you just mix "clay". I don;t have a pullman loaf pan either so I use two smaller pans. I shoud have proofed it for 30 minutes more as almost non cracks appeared at the floured surface of the loaf before going to the oven but still-the results were fantastic.

Hamelman's Vollkornbrot:

The crumb:

Sorry one of them are shorter- I forgot to take a picture before slicing into it.

We've waited about 60 hours before cutting it and boy, it was hard. After tasting it with just a little butter on it I knew it was worth it- one of the very best breads I've made and even tasted. It keeps easily int plastic in the fridge for a week and a half or so now and it tastes just as good.

Today has been a busy day making a range of breads. I had refreshed both my rye sourdough and wheat levain, with no definite projects in mind. Given store cupboard availability at the time, this is what I've ended up with:

•1. Cheese Bread

Part of the "Hamelman Challenge", I made this Cheese Bread using the white levain, pretty much to the recipe. I'm afraid I couldn't extend to Parmegiano Regiano, but I did have a half decent Farmhouse Mature Cheddar Cheese to use as substitute. As with all the breads made at home, this is solely reliant on natural yeasts, so it took a considerably longer time to prove than Hamelman suggests in his book. I made a small loaf in a banneton which was underproved. So, I just allowed the loaf in the Pullman Pan to prove for about 3 hours before baking; this was after a 2 hour bulk proof, so I was really pleased with the end result. It is to formula, found on pp.180-1 of the book, apart from these alterations.

•2. Roasted Brazil Nut and Prune Bread

Well, it should be hazelnut, but I was quite happy to use brazils instead. No added yeast, just the white levain. To formula otherwise. The loaf shown is just shy of 1.2kg. I baked it at 180°C for 55 minutes. It had stuck, ever so slightly in the "banneton", but I was really happy about the lovely moist crumb in the final baked loaf. Prunes are a new household favourite, and we have sourced dried fruits which have been packed perfectly, and knock the socks off even fresh plums! See pp. 185-6

•3. Horst Bandel's Black Pumpernickel

Given I bought 3kg of Organic Rye Berries and 3kg of Organic Cracked Rye Grain, I want to keep on producing "Pumpernickel-style" breads. 8 hours steaming works so well; keeping qualities are unsurpassed. We both love this bread...lots and lots!

•4. Wholegrain Bread leavened with a Rye Sourdough

This one's my own recipe, shown below. I made it as one BIG loaf in a banneton, using bran as a topping to the bread, which weighed in just short of 1.4kg prior to baking! The flours are all organic; the formula is as straightforward as can be for this type of loaf. Bulk ferment time was about 2 hours, with 2 S&F in that time. Final proof was similarly 2 hours. I do so love using rye sourdough to leaven any type of bread. This loaf makes me think of Leader's Pane di Genzano, and yet the 2 formulae have little in common. Can't wait to try it! Bake profile utilised steam, loaded at full heat of 250°C, reduced to 220°C after 10 minutes, then 200°C for the last 20 minutes of a 50 minute bake.

Pre-fermented Flour: 13.8% Overall Hydration: 67.2%

Material

Formula [% of flour]

Recipe [grams]

1. Rye Sourdough

Organic Dark Rye Flour

13.8

112

Water

23.2

188

TOTAL

37

300

2. Final Dough

Rye Sourdough

37

300

Organic Strong White Flour

43.1

350

Organic Strong Wholemeal Flour

43.1

350

Salt

1.7

14

Water

44

357

TOTAL

168.9

1371

Photographs shown below:

Student Bread Competition

The end of the student academic year approaches. Currently we are building 2 College Buildings out of Cake ready for the EAT Food Festival held in Newcastle later in June.

At the end of April we played host to Warburtons to celebrate National Bread Week; the first week of May. A huge organisation, and massively successful baking company; this was a great opportunity for the students, and they all did the College and themselves proud. They divided into 3 groups and designed their own loaves to produce and present to a Senior Manager at the local Warburtons Bakery in our city. Hamelman's Roast Potato and Onion Bread was the inspiration for one group, and it was soo moist; probably my favourite on the day! Another group was led by a baker from Sicily, and the recipe lent heavily on the Semolina Bread I posted on not long ago. Both these breads were made using a Biga Naturale, prepared and fostered by the students themselves. The winners went down the seed route in a big way, and adopted rye sourdough as a means to pack a punch with flavour. Clearly this impressed the judge! They actually made Pain Siègle, a Wholegrain Chollah with seed topping, and a "Couronne" of rolls using rye sour dough and topped with seeds.

Some photographs are attached. Most of these are taken on a mobile phone, so, apologies for lack of quality.

I don't seem to have posted on the blog for a while; hope this keeps up the interest!

Hi all, friday a aunt will be visiting us from Italy and bring some rye flour..it's my very first experience with rye cause in Ecuador have not found so...what do you suggest: 100% rye or a mix with plain flour? How "strong" is rye bread compared with a "white bread"?

I made this decadent bread last Thursday to take to my parents in Seattle for the long weekend. The dough has cocoa powder, melted bittersweet chocolate, coffee, bittersweet chocolate chunks in it, and of course being a brioche, lots of butter (~25%). As if it's not indulging enough, I put some homemade Dulche de leche in each bun. It was a last minute experiment, and OMG, it's perfect!!!! The bread itself is not sweet at all, fragrant with the mocha flavor from coffee and chocolate, which goes so well with the sweet and rich Dulce de leche. I knew it'd be delicious, but it went way beyond my expectations, you must try this mocha+Dulce de leche combo, pure heaven.

For those who are not familiar with Dulce de leche, see this intro: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_de_leche - basically it's a rich milk caramel. Even though you can buy it in cans, it's very simple to make at home. I use the slowcooker method: put cans of condensed milk (unopened, paper label peeled off) in slowcooker, add enough water to have the cans completely submerged, cook on low for 8 hours, then you get perfectly brown and rich Dulce de leche. You can also boil the cans on stove top, but then you MUST take care to add enough water so the cans are completely submerged the whole time, otherwise you risk them exploding! If you don't like to cook it in the cans, you can use this method: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2005/11/dulce_de_lechec.html - I tried it before as well, slightly more work than the slowcooker method, but still a breeze. Once made, you can use it in breads, cakes, cookies, spread like PB or jam, or eat it with a spoon!

Now back to the bread, the dough formula is adapted from the book "The secrets of Baking" by Sherry Yard.

1. mix everything together into a very thin batter, cover and let rest at room temperature for 30 minues until bubbles form

-main dough

bread flour, 390g

salt, 1.75tsp

egg yolk, 4, lightly beaten

bittersweet chocolate, 4oz, chopped

1. shift flour and salt into sponge, add yolks, mix with paddle attachment on low speed for 2 minutes, until yolks are absorbed. Increase to medium speed, knead for 5 minutes. The dough is not that wet, so it cleans the bowl and wrapped around the paddle attachment the whole time.

2. on medium low speed, add chocolate butter one tbsp at a time. switch to dough hook, knead until ver well developed, smooth and stretchy. Add chocolate, mix on low until incorporated.

3. cover and bulk rise for 2 hours until double. punch down and rise again until double, about 45 to 60 minutes (or refrigerator for 4hours or overnight).

4. divide and shape. I divided into 50g dough balls and some 25g balls. the 8 inch cake mold wiht removable bottom took one 50g ball in the center, 6 50g balls in the middle layer, 6 50g balls and 6 25g balls in the outside layer. Still had 5X50g balls left for individual rolls. Of course I did put 1tsp of Dulce de leche in each ball. You can shape in other ways of course. The book says this amount of dough is enough for 2 9X5 loaf pans.

5. proof until double, 30min for me, if you refridgerator the dough, it will take 1.5 to 2 hours.

I thought I was ordering Teff Whole Grain but I obviously made a mistake somewhere along the line because when my order arrived I opened a 25 lb. bag of Teff Flour! I went back to my original order slip and saw that, indeed, I had ordered 25 lbs. of flour. I just looked at this massive amount of flour and wondered how long will it take to use this up. Ugh.

I usually buy whole grain teff and grind it up as I need it. Teff is a potent high protein seed grain and has been a blessing after learning I had to go off gluten. I also use whole grain teff for a power breakfast. I soak the teff grain the night before, 1 cup teff to 3 cups water, add a little water kefir to boost the enzyme activity, cover and let it sit overnight. The next morning I simmer it for about 15 minutes to cook. Mixed with chia gel, flax seed oil and soaked nuts, I'm off and running. I'll often pour the leftovers into a loaf pan where it becomes like polenta. I'll slice it and toast or saute it. Using spices and herbs it could be made sweet or savory.

Since I was missing my teff breakfasts I ordered some more whole grain, this time only 10 lbs. To my horror, I opened a box of 10 lbs. of teff flour, again! I really must slow down, I'm making way too many mistakes.

Anyway, what to do with my 35 lbs. of teff flour? My book, The Art of Gluten Free Sourdough Baking, is based on brown rice flour starters. I'd begun to experiment with buckwheat sorghum starters and have had some great results. I figured I better move on to Teff starters so I wouldn't have pounds and pounds of teff flour either stuffed into the freezer or sprouting critters with legs.

I began a new starter using only teff flour and water in a ratio of 1 to 1. I chose this because teff absorbs a lot of water. I usually use teff to thicken and give structure to some bread recipes. I was surprised that this starter was actually very soupy but I continued along with my 1 to 1 experiment, feeding it every 8 hours or so for a couple of days.

I used the bubbly starter to make Teff pancakes and was pleasantly surprised that they were as good as or even better than the rice pancakes! They were naturally slightly sweet with a great cake-like texture. The leftovers were great toasted the next day. Since I can't eat sweet stuff I used them as an accompaniment to a bean stew. I'm sure they would be great with maple syrup or fruit.

Starter Recipe:Make a starter by mixing equal amounts of teff flour and water. Add a tablespoon of water kefir or other fermented liquid.Feed every 8 hours or so with equal amounts of teff flour and water.After 2 days it should be ready to use.

Pancake Recipe:One cup of starter makes about 4 pancakes. Add a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoons of any oil or fat and 1 tablespoons ground flax seeds. Mix let it sit about 10 minutes and cook.The pancakes will not show bubbles so flip it when it starts to dry out around the outer third. Sometimes I cover it while it's cooking. It cooks faster and more thoroughly.

My next experiment will be making breads using this teff starter. I'll keep you posted.

Part 2:

After last week’s fabulous teff pancakes I continued building the starter even though I sorely needed a break from bread baking. I was busy and thought it would be a good opportunity to practice growing starter in the fridge as this would cut the feedings from 3 times a day to twice.

The starter grew beautifully with a mild aroma. I would take it out for about an hour in the morning, feed it, let it sit another hour or so and put it back in the fridge for 12 hours. I’d repeat the sequence at night before bed. I noticed some thickening and some small bubbles but nothing dramatic.

I had been thinking about creating bread that was mildly sweet without any sweetener beyond 1 teaspoon of stevia powder. I used small amounts of carob and maca (a malty flavored root) and used buckwheat flour for one loaf and shredded coconut for the other. I also used coconut oil for the fat. The batters were rich looking, like cake batter. The aroma in the kitchen was heavenly and the resulting breads were fabulous. Sweet without any added sugars, no blood sugar spikes and no yeasty itching.

My daughter, who named Sourdough Bread #1 “Mommybread” said this Teff Carob bread was the best ever and I should make it exclusively. Forever.

Today I fired up my wfo oven to make pizza and this morning I made therecipe for my 'Sandwich Buns'. I needed hot dog buns for Mondays cookout and since the wfo was hot I retarded the shaped hot dog buns in the refrigerator until tonight when the oven had reached a temperature of apx. 400F and falling. I removed them for about one hour to finish proofing and placed them into the wfo for 20 minutes to bake. I wanted to get them into the oven right away because they had proofed a little more than I wanted, so as I brushed them with an egg yolk glaze and asked my husband to sprinkle on the seeds..I think he actually enjoyed it and I enjoyed watching him enjoying it ;) I will post a crumb shot later.

Beginning to brown

20 minutes baked

Added crumb photo

Ready for tomorrows hot dogs...I haven't had a hot in ages and looking forward to toasting these on the grill!